COTM 16 Second Spoiler - Industrial Ages, World Map

[Karasu]

Well... it looks like the Ancient Age came and went with a few surprises (to be honest, I had my share too when I tested the map ).

Incidentally, I hear that GOTM-AI has been struggling to get this game going.

How about the Middle Ages?

As usual, in order to read or post in this spoiler, you need to:
- be able to research an IA tech, and
- have knowledge the full world map (that is, most of all main landmasses and all civ locations)

 

[Redbad]

Open, going for space

Entered the Medi-evil Age in 50BC and being at war with Aztecs and Incas.


Wars

Factually the wars went well with no defeats and netting us two MGLs (FP in Tenochtitlan and an army). But they also progressed very slowly. So maybe it would have been better to attack faster in less numbers. Anyhow around 250 it looked like it wouldn’t be long until my opponents were smoked, so time to revolt. Don’t recall exactly but I think I drew a 5 turn anarchy. Reanimated as a republic in 300AD we were hit by considerable WW. But in 340 it looked like the wars would end: 6 swords at the last Aztec island city Tzintzuntzen, a dozen swords at the Inca capitol Vilcas on the southern tip of the continent and a dozen AC’s at the Inca holding Vitcos in the mountainous lake-district. Then of course a flip to Inca of its most eastern city, Machu Picchu . Next turn Aztecs were gone and the besieged Inca towns fell, but it took another three turn to get the AC’s out of the mountains and recapture Machu Picchu. So the wars ended in 350 (Aztec) and 380 (Inca).


Meeting the others

There were two galleys by the NW islands that had been used for the invasion. Now the wars were over they were send on a suicide exploration due West. Knowing only Carthage his prices are at monopoly level and Hannibal presumably can tech broker. We need to know more civs badly.
We seem to be in luck: first turn in the ocean neither galley sinks and the second turn only 1 galley sinks. Third turn we reach safety. With having found the other continent we don’t build any new galleys. We see a Carthagian city with no culture. Being quite northerly I presume it’s a recently colonized island. The other civs must live to the south. I even recall seeing the Carthagians first at the southern Inca coast. And sailing south does reveal a continent, but …. I don’t find any other civs. Turn after turn… NOBODY even hardly any barbs. Where is everyone, gone underground or have they all died at a lethal variant of the southeast Asian chicken flu. Without PP Hannibal isn’t going to tell me. I even round the southern end of the new continent and am sailing north again. It’s one of the weirdest things I ever encountered; absolutely nobody to be found.
Then, on my northern coast, out of the dark, arrives an orange galley. The English. I can trade for maps. There are THREE continents (And then to think someone called this “dull”).
Another three turns sailing north with the galley brings me at an Ottoman holding and after that a Babylonian one. I never visited the Japanese. At some time they suddenly popped up in the diplomacy.


Research and Wonders

At the start of the MA I made a plan on how to make up some of the lost speed in the AA. Plan was this: fast research towards Education (universities) and then Astronomy (Copernicus’), Banking (trade) and Music (Bach’s). The purpose of the uni’s is obvious, Copernicus’ not only increases science but more importantly triggers a GA (as I already have SoZ) and Bach’s is very handy for happiness for those who don’t intend to build temples, cathedrals and colossi. The lost 4 turns on researching Music could be made up by trading for a mandatory tech.

For the building of Wonders I had two “pieces de resistance”:
Ulundi, close to the capitol and located at the spot where this games’ 20K-cities are placed
Tenochtitlan: hosting the FP and situated in a very productive environment
Both cities could, if needed, use the palace as a prebuild.

Carthage had build Rusicade and Oea on “our” NW islands. These are cities no 8 and 9, so I estimate they have a core of 7 cities. 7 Would be a normal number of AI-cities on Monarch. We however had up to 30 cities, so I figured that, once in Republic, we would crush the AI on research. (Yes, I’m still pretty naive sometimes)

In 50BC Carthage is up on Monarchy and Feudalism, so off we go with Monotheism. Before Mono is researched the number off needed turns suddenly drops, indicating Hannibal has researched it. However I can’t buy the remaining turns as a gpt-offer makes him feel sick (my destroyed reputation ). After Mono we proceed with Theo. Researched in the early 300AD’s. But I can’t trade it for Feudalism, only can take Monarchy and gpt and cash. That we do and onwards with Education. In 360AD Carthage finishes Glib and gets Engineering. Next thing I know the Carthagians must have discovered a source of cocaine, because their research and wonder building is running wild.

After the Glib in 360 they build:
500 Sun Tzu’s
560 Leonardo’s
620 Copernicus’
740 Magelan’s

After we researched Education it can be used to obtain engineering. And luckily with Banking and Music we can trade for Feudalism. We managed to build Bach’s in 530 but as one can see no Copernicus’. And because Hannibal also builds Magelan’s I see to my horror that the first wonder induced GA could be the INTERNET . Although I didn’t trade with Astronomy, Hannibal had little trouble obtaining it himself.
I researched Invention, Guns and Chemistry after Hannibal (all 4 turns luckily) and then turned towards Metallurgy in an attempt to trade for Physics, which Hannibal already knew too. But no, no trade possible. So I think let’s research Economics and throw that in the deal along with Metallurgy. And Smith’s gives a good goal for the obsolete “Copernicus’”-shields. But when Economics was researched, Hannibal had Metals, so again no trade. I had to research two turns into Physics before a trade became possible.
After that Hannibals cocaine-source must have dried up as he returned to normal speed. I could secure Newton’s in 810 and Smith’s in 850.

We entered the Industrials in 860 in a rather disoriented shape. I’m very anxious to see how all those people that had a bad opening fared during the Middle Ages. And especially Megalou and Shigella as they reach for the same goal as I did and because they both entered the MA in 630BC.

 

[Karasu]

...There are THREE continents ...

Glad you enjoyed the surprise

Looks like you had a very interesting game, though -I mean, the story is really intriguing to read

 

[Twonky]

The continental wars
Entering the MA in 470 BC and the Republic in 370 BC, I was now preparing for the inevitable wars with the Aztecs and the Incas – without horses. I´m not at all fond of fighting with swordsmen, but so be it.
It takes me until 190 AD to declare on war the Aztecs, triggering my GA on the first turn of the war. My MDIs roll them up nicely and peace is made in 390 AD with the Aztecs reduced to 2CC on a nearby island NW.
My wild horde turns south, collects more reinforcements and declares on the Inca in 560 AD, eliminating them in 750 AD, along with the remains of the Aztecs in 760 AD.

The overseas contacts
Having seen a carthaginian galley appearing on the SE tip of the continent, I figured the AI would live east of us. A first suicide galley sinks, but then I actually see a dark red border in a corner of the fog. Crossing the seas there gives me contact with Japan in 30 AD, followed by the Ottomans (150 AD), Babylon (170 AD) and England (350 AD).
The big surprise arrives in 630 AD, when I trade around Worldmaps – England (who is seafaring and owns the Lighthouse) has fully mapped the coastline of that third landmass and already settled 2 towns over there! I want to win by domination, what the... , oh well, the IA is going to be a busy time.

In 890 AD I reach the IA. I am currently building up horsemen in order to mass upgrade them to cavalry and send them against Japans, who ironically is my horse dealer for the time being. The idea is to use them to the fullest before Nationalism comes in.
The second objective will be to settle the southern isle of the third continent asap.
Luckily, I didn´t try to build a lot of wonders. The only setback was building a 400 shield university in Ulundi when I lost the race for JSB. But that´s nothing compared to what happened to others.

 

[Salte]

Open, going for domination.

I didn't enter the MA until 60AD when I got currency from the glib.
At this time I was at war with the Aztecs, and had mopped all but three of their cities on our continent, the start had been very slow, but after that things had gone ok.
At the start of the MA I was also in a golden age and still in despotism.

The start of the MA turned this game from a poor one into a nightmare.
Around 200AD I lost most of my army of elite and vet swords trying to capture tenochtitlan. After this i built M Inf and gave it another go, a really poor decision, and it cost me dearly. Lost maybe 10 units against the aztec pikes and gave up the siege, made peace for some gold.

At this time I had met the english and carhage, and with the glib in place i got a steady stream of techs, but i knew it wouldn't last forever so i started building some libraries to prepare for having to do some research myself. I also revolted and got a republic in place.

After a 500 year slumber the zulus were rudely awaken by an incan sneak attack in 820AD. This proved to be a blessing in disguise as it got our military production going again. Incan cities fell one after another (allthoug having an army of cannons and mid inf is painfully slow).

In 1250AD I finish research on Magnetism and enter the Industrial Age. The incans have recently been thrown off our continent, but managed to survive with a city in the new world. (Where they would live on in poverty for a few hundred years).

The aztecs still have two cities left on our continent, but my army has been moved up north and they will fall shortly (i hope). Galleons are being prepared to start an assault on Japan and their horses.

 

[Zelda's Man]

Continuing with my 20K goal.

Cathedral 170 AD
Coliseum 190 AD
Forbidden Palace 290 AD
University 740 AD
Temple 760 AD
JS Bach's Cath 720 AD
Smith's Trad Comp 1040 AD
Shake's Theater 1250 AD

Inca and Aztecs went to war at the beginning of the age. I did not join b/c I wanted them both to survive to keep the tech pace fast. I thought I would try a totally peaceful game for a change. After the initial skirmishes here and there, even though I owned the entire middle section, the Inca's sent a stack of Med Inf through and eventually started taking Aztec cities. I never saw more than Aztec swordsmen. Once I saw the Incas were not going to relent, I decided to join to try to get some Aztec spices and maybe grab the Pyramids in the capital. The Incas grabbed the capital, but I was able to plop down a city in the spices and grab a city on an island to the northwest in the peace process.

The Ottomans wiped out the Carthagians before I even knew their whole continent.

20K problems: I was beaten to the Sistine Chapel and someone had already built STAoW and no one knew Invention, so I had to settle for a marketplace (0 cpt). I was researching Education at the time so I had no other choices (too many shields for Palace). I only got one free tech from the Great Library (not so great after all, kept hoping to get invention before I learned Ed). England was easily the tech leader and I was struggling to keep up. I almost quit entirely when I was beaten to Coperincus' Observatory by one turn. Yes, I said one turn. This was starting to look like a terrible MA for me. Luckily I was able to buy Economics from England for all my GPT, gold, etc. Then I declared war on her to get my money back. This ruined my rep, but I had to have the GPT to keep up with Liz's tech pace. I grabbed one of her cities on the island with the former Aztec city, and that was basically all of the fighting for this war. She pulled the Ottomans into the fight, but neither of us lost a unit.

I was very surprised to see an entire continent with no one starting on it. Especially seeing all the resources on it. England did a very good job of settling the entire northern portion though.

 

[BuildCityWalls!]

...it was quite frustrating. It was relatively easy to conquer 'my' continent from the Aztecs and Incas (and the Carthaginians and Japanese) but then almost impossible to mount an invasion of the other two landmasses. This is because by the time my home wars were finished the other AIs had riflemen or better. Also, there are no horses on my home continent and the AIs were not willing to trade them. With a lack of cavalry I couldn't do a thing. Even a force of 50+ medieval infantry were useless. I had to use tanks in the end to get anywhere. I still lost tho

 

[MeteorPunch]

Open - 20k

I'm not really used to playing 20k, so I totally forgot that I should be cash-rushing culture improvements. I lost 12 turns on my end date by not cash-rushing the colosseum and cathedral. I remembered to do this for university though, but forgot that I should disband a unit first, instead of waiting a turn to cash-rush. I think I was enjoying the game to much too be bothered with strategy.

I finished off the Inca and Aztecs during this time, using AC's and MDI. Armies of these were very helpful in city captureing.

Timeline
2150BC Temple
1400BC Colossus
1225BC Library
875BC Mausolleum of Mausollos
590BC Statue of Zeus, Golden Age
250BC The Great Library
250BC 1st MGL, army
210BC GA ends
190BC revolt
150BC Republic begins
90BC enter MA
----------------------------------
30BC 2nd MGL
10AD Heroic Epic
130AD Colosseum
150AD Forbidden Palace (MGL rush)
280AD Cathedral
480AD Copernicus' Observatory
500AD University
720AD 3rd MGL, army
730AD Shakepeare's Theatre
800AD 4th MGL, army
970AD JS Bach, enter the IA

 

[ionimplant]

my game ended in the beginning of industrial age. but the game really was finished in the middle age. ottomas and england were the two nations that also enter the IA (i actually stole one tech from one of them to get to the industrial age). and everyone was so involved in war (with everyone else) and so the game just dragged on like that...
by the time i found the third continent, the northern part was already occupied by three nations but i did get the bottom fertile land to myself. i was planning to win by domination and so sent loads of settlers over there but it turned out to be useless because i achieved conquest victory when my territory was at about 64%. managed to research to military tradition and then shut research down forever (stole two techs). transporting my military oversea and get them to march over all those jungle and marshland in the 2nd continent is the speed-limiting step and i definitely need to improve my logistics... finally conqest everyone at 1300AD.

as for the horse, just as i sent all my army to the 2nd continent and got myself ready for a bloody war for the horse, i found a source in the 3rd continent.

 

[Zeepsel]

Open, going for spaceship after seeing the distance to the other continent, kind of suboptimal, but fun though!

After I conquered the Aztecs in the ancient age and getting the Pyramids in Tenochtitlan I had regrouped my forces, revolted into Republic and set up a war against the Inca.

The Inca war started in 210 AD and I advanced pretty fast, but had some bad luck breaking a lot of swords and MI against Cuzco... I was tech leader on my continent and therefor the Inca only had spears, I upgraded Swords to MI as much as I could. After finally taking Cuzco I realized there was no way I could:
1 Keep the city without it flipping back.
2 Keep the city without it being recaptured because I was outnumbered next turn
So I decided to abandon Cuzco and its Mausoleum of Mausolos, this gave me a lot of space to get new forces and push through for the final 4 cities.
In 460 AD the Inca were destroyed and the continent was mine except for a lone Carthaginian city. I placed forces near that city and near some cities of mine.

540 AD Carthage landed some forces near an unprotected and non-important city of mine in the former Inca-area and they declared, I took back the city and took the lone Carthaginian city and secured the mainland, made peace again as soon as possible.

During the Inca war and the short Carthaginian war I focussed on putting more cities on the continent and build infrastructure as much as possible. I became tech leader pretty soon, although I couldn't manage to get infront by more than 2 techs in the middle ages, this would of course change near the end of the MA, since I do not research the stupid techs and go straight for the useful ones and the industrial age.

Once we learned how to navigate our ships properly in around 850 AD I decided to load a few settlers onto a ship and sail to the place we all became to know as the 3rd continent, I settled the bottom island as fast as possible and it was good to see some horsies there to get some cavalry in the field.
Ottomans got some cities in the tundra parts of the island in the early industrial ages, but that didn't matter at all...

My forces where almost non-existing near the end of the middle ages, having a suboptimal MI-army which I used to speed up Inca destruction and some Cav's for defensive purposes, so I had no unit upkeep and my research was progressing very fast.

I don't know in which date I entered the IA exactly, but it has to be around 900-950 AD.

Good parts of my game so far:
- Speedy research after entering the MA a bit to late.
- Pyramids helped me out a great deal, more growth = more population = more commerce and production = more research which is good
- Taking the chance of sailing into a giant ocean and finding the 3rd continent there and some horsies.

Bad parts:
- Late industrial age for my liking, would've liked to enter it a few hundred years earlier.
- Switching victory conditions which slowed my game considerably...

 

[Megalou]

Predator, NoAIPatrol=0

Technology

When Carthage met us in 800 BC they had somehow already reached the Middle Ages while we had Construction, Currency, Mysticism and Polytheism left. I wanted to cling to our Republic monopoly but was able to trade Construction from Inca and Mysticism from Carthage, giving Literature.

I then continued to research Currency by myself, but met Japan and was able to trade Polytheism. Currency was finished in 630 BC and we entered the Middle Ages. I still didn't know any of the scientific civs but Monotheism was suspiciously expensive compared to the other two MA techs so I picked that. It was the right choice because Carthage soon knew Engineering (probably traded for Monarchy) and in 450 BC I met Babylon who was clinging to Feudalism. In 410 BC I finished Monotheism and finally let go of Republic to get all first layer techs.

Some other techs:

510 BC - Monarchy (trade)
230 BC - Invention
50 BC - Theology
110 AD - Education
130 AD - Gunpowder (trade)
270 AD - Chemistry
340 AD - Astronomy (trade)
350 AD - Metallurgy
around 410 AD - Navigation (I can't believe I researched that)
570 AD - Magnetism to enter IA (This was the only tech I researched in 4 turns.)

Other Events

690 BC - 290 BC: The Inca's declared on us but we pushed them back with Ancient Cavalry. 2 towns and one worker were gained in the peace treaty.

650 BC - We were forced to start our Golden Age with Impi.

90 BC - We declared on Aztecs.

10 BC - Great Leader built Ancient Cavalry army.

50 AD - We completed Leo's Workshop.

280 AD - Aztecs were eliminated. Our curragh discovered the big empty landmass because Carthage kicked it out of their territory

370 AD - We declared on Inca. This war is slow, the army is nearly killed. Heroic Epic is completed.

460 - Second leader hurried FP in the Incan town of Vilcas.

550 AD - Incas were eliminated.

Some of these choices will seem odd for a space race effort. The sad truth is that I was undecided about the victory condition. For example, I researched Navigation because I was in a hurry to fill up the empty islands with settlers. I built Leo's because I was overly interested in military feats.

I didn't get any other MA wonders. Let's see if that means that I will be able to do more tech trades in the IA and Modern Age. Ottomans look pretty strong. I should perhaps help them to get some more territory from England.

World of 570 AD:

 

[Nata]

C3C Open.

AA spoiler

I entered MA in 230BC, in republican GA and a war with Aztecs. They sneak attacked me when most of my forces were engaged in the South with Inca, so my response wasn't very fierce.
But still it was enough for:
50AD. peace with Aztecs for their NW island town of Tula.

90AD. Galley reaches very backwards Japan.
200AD. Contacted Ottomans and Babylonians.
360AD. Finally meet England.
410AD. Carthange ROP-raped us, taking an empty city. Nice. We can take 2 of their cities on our shore now.
460AD. 2nd time in a game! I have 1 turn till Leo and English build it! Switch to Knights Templar, waste about 200 shields.

580AD. Finally destroyed Inca. Can you beleive it? All that time, since 500BC, I was always at war with them. I couldn't take their last puny island town for about 500 years.

Here what happened:
- I sent a galley with 2 v.MDIs to that town, it is defended by 2 reg.Spears. I also built a Longbowman in nearby Tula. 2 MDIs attack. 1st dies, redlining 1st Spear. 2nd dies, redlining 2nd Spear. Longbowman kills 1 spear, gets redlined. Next turn Longbowman faces 2 green Spears: one healed, one new.

Rince an repeat - THREE times! That happened 3 times in a row, in exactly the same way. Finally I sent 2 galleys/4 MDIs and finished off the wretched town. Yeah... "3 times I built a castle in a swamp, and it sunk".

After finishing Inca we deside ROP-raping Aztecs. They are backwards and only know Pikemen.

700AD. Rop-rape was half-hearted, should have taken the capital at once. I took all the cities on the mainland and islands leaving them only peninsula with 2 cities (capital and Iron city), and destroyed their Iron in the North.
Next turn their city on the isthmus flipped and SaltPeter went within their city radius, and somehow they learned GunPowder during the war, so next turn we are faced with muskets in all 3 cities!
We take the flipped city back, but our main assault force burns out on muskets in a capital. Need to regroup and think.

We are streamlining to Navigation meanwhile, preparing assault on the other continent. We need to improve our research, so build some libraries/Uni in the core. But our goal is still Domination.

850AD. 3 attempts to take Aztecs' capital fail. It's Inca's last town all over again. We attack with MDIs and Crusaders and always fall short.
Last time there's only one red-lined musket left in there. I gather a new attack force but another town flips and again gives them SaltPeter. Why didn't I pillage it? Retake that town and pillage SP. But their capital have a new musket there, of course.

860AD. We sign RoP with Japan and move our forces into position there. We need their Horse. They dow first! Nice, War happiness at last.

870AD - Finally take Aztecs' capital! And take Japanese Horse city the same turn. Ally Carthage against Japs as Japs have lots of obsolete defenders, need to weed them out.
880AD - I have Horses! Japs Horse city was connected to road/harbour network. Everybody builds Knights, we are 11 turns from MT.

930AD. Aztecs finally gone. Phew.

1050AD. By this time: learned MT, upgraded 12 Knights, attacking Japan by shipping everything in Caravels.
This year, finally, GL is born in Japan, after scores of elite victories. I even started to think GLs were disabled in this game...
Build Cavalry Army. yeah!

1080AD. English land a Knight and a Warrior on my NW island. I demand to remove troops and they dow. Lucky: they were becoming runaway in Tech. I ally Otto (with Sipahi, yeah!) and Babs against them.
1090AD. Japan gone.

English knight takes my town, defended by a lonely Longbowman. Tried recapturing my island town with Immortals from the next island - no luck. Kill the warrior, but the Knight captured the 2nd town and keeps killing everybody I ship over there, and each turn they buy a new spearmen in each city.
I ship some Cavalry over but when they arrive there they see Riflemen instead of spearmen. And English keep buying new ones each turn.

I finally recapture the stinking towns. Phony peace talk with England - they went from 3000g to 0G over this affair. Not bad.

1170AD. Enter IA - last of all. Everybody but Carthage has Riflemen, and Zulu nation is tired and weary, weary from bad lack and long, fruitless wars.

The prospect of even harder wars of Cavs against Riflemen disgusts Shaka, he longs for peace. And so our new goal is desided: Diplomacy. And that would be in the next spoiler.

Attached: Zulu at 1020AD, conquering Japan.

 

[Shigella]

Predator - Going for Space

I’m very anxious to see how all those people that had a bad opening fared during the Middle Ages. And especially Megalou and Shigella as they reach for the same goal as I did and because they both entered the MA in 630BC.

At the end of my AA spoiler when I was listing reasons for Redbad to maintain his confidence, I could have added that I played the Middle Ages like a rank amateur. Then again, that would have been spoilerish.

Please refer to Megalou's post to see what I should have accomplished. This brief post will re-count my abject failure at attaining the same goals.

So let's set the stage for this fiasco:
1. I (once again) shut off science when I saw double digit turns to complete any tech at the dawn of the middle ages.
2. Inca completed Temple of Artemis in 470 BC.
3. Aztecs completed Great Library in 290 BC. Goody! I'll just capture the library to make up for the fact that my tech is shut off! Stupid, stupid, stupid
4. I finally got around to completing the Statue of Zeus in 270 BC.
5. I must have been , because I finally got around to declaring on the Inca in 150 AD. Started the war off with an impi victory, so my golden age was on.

On a positive note, I did generate a GL on my first elite victory and created a valuable AC army. Sadly, my war against the Inca turned into a slog. Given their culture gains from TofA, I suffered 3-4 flips.

In 440 AD, while I'm conducting cleanup operations on the Inca (way too slow), they managed to ally the Aztecs against me. That was fine, as Monty had a bullseye on his chest anyway.

I finally eliminated the Inca from the mainland in 530 AD, and gave them peace for 44 GPT and 267 gold (and I think they were boat people at the time). They lived on for a while with one town on the NW islands. The Inca built Sun Tzu's and Knights Templar for me (in addition to TofA), so it wasn't a total loss.

I took an even longer time against the Aztecs, and finally eliminated them from the mainland in 850 AD (they had a couple of towns in the NW islands, and Tenochtitlan flipped back to them after we signed peace). In the meantime, I had captured the Great Library in Tenochtitlan (which gave me 7 free techs - in Monarch - shameful :shakehead ). I had also conducted some research along the way, but my overall approach to the MA in this game is embarrassing. Really - who stays at war against the same civ for 41 turns, while a Repblic, in what is purported to be a space race game. Apparently, I do

I finally staggered into the Industrial Age in 940 AD.

A few positive notes:
1. My reputation is spotless!
2. I have all the known world's gold (and it was a rather large amount of gold). I was serving as a personal investment firm for the English, who accumulated massive piles of gold during what was obviously their Golden Age. This would come in rather handy at the beginning of the Industrial Age.

Redbad and others will note that my approach in this game closely parallels my "exploits" in GOTM46 - I guess I'm a slow learner

to Megalou. I've obviously got a lot to learn about conducting warfare and research simultaneously in the Middle Ages.

 

[dalgo]

Open Class - Domination

This has to be the best map I've ever played - I love exploring.

I started out normally, fighting to gain control of my own continent and sending out suicide galleys to find the other one. No horses was compensated for by Zeus and I had an AC army early. But when I finally finished exploring the other continent and had met the rest of the civs I still had a lot of black on my map. One of my suicide galleys had uncovered a single sea tile to my west - could there be a third continent? If so it would probably be empty as I'd met everyone and none had an ocean tech. Accordingly I changed my research focus from Metallurgy/MT (no horses anyway) to Astronomy/Navigation and prepared a couple of Caravels with settlers, muskets and Impis aboard. Buying some world maps confirmed the other civs had no knowledge of that area.

As soon as Navigation came in I sent them off to explore - and there it was. Huge tracts of empty, fertile land - and plenty of horses. I hastily changed my builds to caravels, settlers and muskets for defence, and started Magellan’s. By the time the first opposition town appeared I had 7 towns established and 7 more settlers on the water. I remembered ship chaining is allowed and set up a string of caravels to fast track the colonisation. My army of workers were just finishing clearing the wetlands so I ferried them across too.

I soon had almost complete control of two continents but was still well short of Domination. Babylon were my strongest opponents (they had wiped out the English before I even met them) so I attacked them and gained a foothold in the north before taking peace. I built up my forces for a decisive attack and when I was ready I rolled south and captured Babylon. What a treasure trove - 5 Wonders including the Pyramids, Sistine and Sun Tzu. I sent all my troops in for some R & R. They wandered round this huge city marvelling at all the wonders and taking in the delights of the greatest city of the Middle Ages - and it flipped.

I lost 3 cavalry armies, 6 infantry, 4 cavalry, 3 guerrillas – and 26 artillery. At least it reduced my unit cost!

I haven't played the game since. I'm just now starting to work out where to go from here.



Edit: After sulking for a few days I went back, built up my military again, and decimated Babylon to get the win.

 

[compmage]

Open.

Started the MA in abuot average shape compared to everyone elses games. Captured all the Inca cities, leaving then as a boat people (they were destroyed about 2 hundred years later by another AI, still as a boat people). Removed the Aztecs from my continent, leaving them only 2 cities on an island.

I was importing horses from Japan and had a number of cats, cav, MDI and 2-3 cav armies. Didn't like having to trade so I setup the invasion of Japan. Captured both their horse cities in the first 2 turns of war.

Then the first ever dogpile I have been subjected too. Ottamans, sneak attack me from behind, capturing one of my newly captured Japanese cities and within 2 turns every AI on the 2nd continant except England is at war with me. To top it off a few turns later I ran into the first Ottamans ship - a DESTROYER. Fortunately it was only the Ottamans and the Babalonians who where that far ahead.

Needless to say taking the second continent was a long slog. Only finished just before my Domination victory in 1995, but that is another story.

 

[PaperBeetle]

Open. Shaka is trying desperately to escape this bad luck planet.

A bit like the Ancient Spoilers, this thread seems to have turned into a group therapy session for the space racers. Well, Redbad, Zeepsel and Shigella; thanks for sharing your pain with the group. And Megalou; to you! Maybe we didn't want the fastest spaceship award anyway
Ah, I guess it's my turn to tell my story.

<PaperBeetle stands up and nervously clears his throat>

"Hello, my name is PaperBeetle ... and I am going for a spaceship victory."

<Muted applause and nods of sympathy from the other group members>

"Like many of you guys, I entered the medieval in the middle of the first millennium b.c. (350bc) having recently met the Alpha continent. I thought I was in okay shape, given the slow start position, although I had missed Zeus by a turn. Then I drew up a good long list of things to avoid doing in a space game, and made sure to have them all done by the end of the age.

"I was in the middle of a series of wars with the Aztecs, during which time I managed to lose my rep breaking a peace deal (I thought there was an article in the Academy saying that peace rep was entirely seperate from trading rep...) By the time I was finished with Monty (30bc) the Inca had got fat and cultural, occupying the entire southern half of the continent and flaunting their shiny new temple to Artemis.

"I delayed the Incan war while I regrouped my troops - fool, this kind of spinelessness never pays off. Well maybe this cloud had a slight silver lining; our relations deteriorated somewhat until Pacha dowed on me in 260ad. In anticipation of this, I had a scout standing on his iron, which he didn't bother to kill! Next turn the iron was pillaged, and my maces started trudging south.

"This was a really slow war because the Incas were cultural giants, and I had to wade through their territory for years to reach their towns. One town flipped twice but I always had nearby maces who could take it back. In 330ad I got my first leader (army of maces). The second came in 400ad and rushed the Epic. The third came from the penultimate combat of the war, and formed another mace army (why didn't I leave the army unfilled? ) In 570ad the Inca were destroyed.

"Things still looked okay, but I was on the slide... I delayed trading Education from the other continent so that I could get cultural expansion in all my existing towns, from Artemis. I was slow in filling in the Incan lands, and the Carthaginians settled on my west coast. My research was focused on getting all the optional techs!!! Well, I did get good trade value from most of them, and I wasn't researching fast enough to keep up with the Anglo-Babylonian scientific alliance on the direct route.

"Ah yes, the English. In 650ad, they dropped an archer next to an undefended town in the Aztec province. I gave Liz Economics + 65gpt for Democracy and asked her to leave. She agreed. Of course, she couldn't actually leave as her ship had sailed away again. Next turn I asked again and got a dow. The town was captured and then retaken, and I put Democracy to use buying the other guys into the war.

"They didn't do very much, although there was a lot of skirmishing between Carthaginian Zeus cavalry and English templars. I didn't have many ships or many decent attackers (still no horses, and everyone is using muskets) so I couldn't summon the enthusiasm to join in. Eventually I got a mace army, a couple of elites and a settler combo over to England, although the roads there were clogged with allied troops. After the razing of an English town, I founded my own right between a horse and a wine! Meanwhile my mace army is knocked down to 1hp failing to damage an English musket. At this point I decided to cease active military participation.

"Given my own lack of enthusiasm for the war, I can hardly blame the Babylonians and Ottomans for dropping out too. The trouble was that Babylon immediately resumed buddy-buddy trading with England, and I had no means to buy them back in. Osman, meanwhile, switched sides and allied against me. I set Carthage and Japan on them. So now we had a fully-fledged world war. In a space race game! And we haven't even got to the MPP stage yet!

"I discover the third continent late (about 750ad) to find the other civs had recently started colonizing it. Actually, we haven't charted its southwestern coastline yet, but frankly I'm not too interested in this place. Yet. I half suspect it might be the only source of some important modern resource. I sent a half-hearted expedition over there to pop the odd hut, but I just got maps.

"So we come to the current state of affairs. On the Alpha continent, Babylon is becoming larger and more powerful, while the English research capability seems undiminshed by the ongoing war. Perhaps I should be thankful of that. On the wonder front, I lost the race to Bach by a single turn and chose Smith instead of Magellan, rather than take the 200 shield hit - pure vanity, which leaves me building wimpies to try and trigger my golden age :shakehead. I correctly guessed that Babylon would choose Magnets over Gravity, so researched the latter in 860ad, but I didn't trade on the interturn; before I could get control back, England got Gravity at the reduced rate and swapped with Babylon. They went industrial, and I was left researching Magnets. My mate Toku got it three turns later (although I had just recently acheived 4-turn research) so we swapped and finally joined the industrial club. The date is 890ad.

<PaperBeetle falls silent. The other group members have all fallen asleep. One wakes with a start, looks around, and without saying anything, leaves the room to go to the toilet. PaperBeetle sits down again.>

 

[Don Vito]

I had a scout standing on his iron, which he didn't bother to kill! Next turn the iron was pillaged, and my maces started trudging south.

I tought "Scout Resource Denial" was forbidden in the rules

 

[Megalou]

And Megalou; to you!

Well, after 3.5 years in the forum I might be a bit blasé (if not passé.) My IA date 570 AD rings a bell from some other game way back when so if you want a bit of , and I'll supply them too. I think the Middle Ages are usually the hardest part in Space Race games. Your delay of Education seems out of place in a research game (as did some of my moves as you can see in my spoiler.)

Interestingly, you say that you reached 4-turn research somewhere in the late MA. That's the same as me; actually I only researched Magnetism in 4 turns. So more focus on the decided victory conditions could probably do it for you.

Your invasion attempt of England was not malplaced just because you play a research game - I assume you were going for wines or for a wonder - but invasions of other continents in the later stages require a lot of troops so in research games they tend to fail more often. As for the empty continent - think it over.

 

[Megalou]

I tought "Scout Resource Denial" was forbidden in the rules

I would not call it that. They have the resource connected already, so PaperBeetle is not denying them anything.

 

[PaperBeetle]

Thanks for the encouragement - yup, there was definitely lack of focus in my medieval. After I saw that you and Redbad were both doing space, I had the thought to switch to the milk run instead. I think I was on this train of thought when I held off Education in favour of a quick burst of culture - I probably spent the time researching some optional tech

I lost heart with the milk idea when I finished filling my own continent and only had 20% of the land... of course that was poorly thought out too. I could have looked at it thus: "whatever is over there in the west, it must big and it must be empty. I'll just fill it with junk towns and this milking will be a breeze."

As for the war with England; my main reason for escalating the conflict was to break up the tech trading between Babylon and England. If I have one strong AI researcher (i.e. Ham) we can swap techs on a fairly even basis (i.e. 2 of mine for 1 of his ), but when there are two strong AI, it is too easy for them to keep me out of their club.
There are other reasons to go over there (1) the wines and horses are a bonus, but a big flip risk too. (2) I have plenty of maces left over from my homeland wars which need to be used up. They go mouldy if you don't put them in the fridge. (3) I have several elite units which can fish for leaders. (4) War happiness.
The real problem with fighting England is the logistics of getting there. My fleet is small, and the political situation on the western side of their continent is pretty complex (er... that's my fault of course ) so getting troops through to England is hard work.

But on to the industrial I go. Things can only get better!